Film and Book Reviews
read more →
Entering the Mystery: The Song of the Lamb By Marge Hynes, Writer “The liturgy derives its greatness from what it is, not from what we make of it.”—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy Usually, my book collection grows at a rate that suggests a minimalist intervention is long overdue. But while most titles […]
read more →
Praying with the Saints by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, published in August by Ave Maria Press, offers concise reflections on men and women of heroic virtue and how they prayed. This book offers short, easy-to-read reflections on the lives of 103 saints, perfect for a quick meditation each day to grow closer to those in heaven. According to Ave Maria Press, it is also “the first prayer book to include Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati as saints.”
read more →
After a meaningful plot reveal, the film zeroes in on the interiority of Maria’s murderer, who is in the room with us. In light of this revelation, perpetrators, victims, sinners, and saints stand on equal ground, because mercy infuses justice. Despite our discomfort with this evening of scales, grace still does its work. It vitalizes the bleak room of the prison, a place one character likens to Hell.
read more →
Part memoir, part guide, Adventure Awaits has the rhythm of a conversation with a wise friend. The book transmutes Sumereau’s sometimes glamorous, often complicated experiences into sound spiritual advice and guidance. It’s welcoming, humorous, and earnest all at once, in close conversation with scripture, the saints, and Ignatian spirituality.
read more →
Moses the Black: “No One Can Serve Two Masters” By Marge Hynes, Writer Moses the Black imagines a modern-day Chicago gang leader, Malik, whose life echoes the brutal conversion of one of the Church’s most arresting saints. The film asks the viewer to remain, uncomfortably, inside the world humanity constructs without Christ: blood, death, sin, […]
read more →
How can we understand what it means to be a good man in the twenty-first century?
Pearce offers us a look at how we might answer such a question through his short yet profound literary reflections. This book consists of forty-eight reflections on poems and novels that can inspire Catholic men to grow in holiness and pursue a life of virtue.
read more →
When Simone crosses the threshold into the Idaho house—this novel is full of doors both metaphorical and physical that arrange and filter how she encounters her memories, her choices, her wishes, her beliefs—she finds more than painful memories waiting. The presence there shifts between beauty and terror, invitation and threat. Is it her own mind fracturing under pressure, or is it something real, something outside herself? Is the presence formed from guilt, sadness, love, or evil? The novel’s answers are winding and complicated, reminding us that the spiritual realm is and not always as it seems, that our choices have consequences outside the bounds of ourselves, and that we are never as alone (or as autonomous) as we may think or feel.
read more →
Set in March of 1920 on the snow-swept plains of North Dakota, Hazel’s Heart tells the story of Hazel Miner, a sixteen-year-old whose love for her younger siblings transformed a devastating blizzard into a story of hope, courage, and sacrifice.
It’s a historical story, yes, but the themes of faith, endurance, and love? Those are as relevant today as they were a century ago.
read more →
This advent, I spent each day reading Susan De Bartoli’s Welcoming the Christ Child with Padre Pio. Although this book was released in 2022, it was a tremendous daily read to prepare for Christmas.
read more →
Author Emily Cavins draws us into Kateri’s life with depth, respect, and insight, revealing a woman who found beauty in great suffering and God’s grace in the creation she so dearly loved and revered.
access for free →
These professionally crafted, spiritually-inspired templates will help you create scroll-stopping posts in minutes. Skip the design struggle and share your message beautifully. Customize in Canva, post and get noticed. And yes, it's totally okay to swipe these!
The Paloma & Fig 2026 Social Media Collection
free canva templates
Check out our podcast, A Resounding Yes!
If you like spiritual nourishment on the go…
